Abstract: Over the 40 years of reform and opening-up, the floating population policy in China has been developed in three stages, from gradually loosening restrictions for farmers to enter a city, to requesting treating the floating population equally, and then to comprehensively promoting the urbanization. Because of the two-fold organization of household registration for agriculture and non-agriculture citizens, “the township-city floating population” and “the city-city floating population” always face hindrance when integrating with communities of the floating-in city. The decision of the transient population to stay, relocation or wait and see depends on the characteristics of floating population itself, also on the inclusiveness of government, the market as well as the local society in floating-in city. Specifically, some key factors affect the decision of floating population, including the household registration system, income level, marital status, residence period in the city, living habits and behavior patterns. The process of urbanization governance of the floating population must go through the urbanization of household registration, identity and cultural concepts. To this end, in the process of promoting new mode of urbanization, the multi-governance bodies such as the government, the market, the society, and the public should work together to further promote the reform of the household registration system; improve the vocational skills and income levels of the floating population; stress on the linking function of non-government organizations; enhance public participation and social interaction to promote the urban integration for the floating population.

Key words: floating population, social quality, social inclusiveness, social sentiment, urbanization governance